Hey guys! I'm so so so sorry for not updating earlier. I had a french video due, and it took hours to edit and film, plus, I went to Niagra falls with my family, and then I had a math test, and I had writer's block and ugh, I'm so sorry. To make up for it, I'm making this chapter longer than I normally would (I usually make them around 2,000 words. This one is around 3,000) .

Ooh big news, I'm writing another story called "Unwilling Angels". The title may change, but I'm not sure. I'm looking for a beta for the story, so feel free to PM me if you're interested.

Your reviews mean the world to me, honestly. It blows my mind that you guys take a few moments out of your time just to tell me you like what I do. You guys are so amazing!

Flora Silverthrush: Thanks so much! Here's the next chapter, sorry it's late. Enjoy :)

HeronFray104: Haha, funny you should say that. I was actually planning on making this whole chapter in Jace's point of view, even before your review. Great minds think alike :). There is definitely gonna be some drama with Sebastian and Clary. You'll find out more about it this chapter :1

BrunetteAngel12: Yay! I'm glad you loved it :) Jealous Jace is super fun to write, and there will be more of cocky Sebastian, as well as cocky Jace. Sorry about swapping again. I'll do my best not to do it, but I'm not making any promises :) Congratz on getting the reference… I hope you enjoyed the preview :)

Debra Williams: Yay! I'm so happy you enjoyed it :D Here's the next chapter. You are awesome :)

Songs for this chapter are "She Will Be Loved" By Maroon5 and "Love Yourself" By Justin Bieber.

As I already said, this chapter is (mostly) in Jace's point of view. On with the story!

~oOo~

He took his hands off of her waist. They felt like they were burning… but in a good way. He was sad the dance was over, but scared as well. What if they started dating, and they were always like this? That would be a disaster.

The dance was awkward, to say the least. Jace did his best to make sure she enjoyed herself, but he couldn't help but feel bad for her. She looked so out of her element. Like she wanted to run and hide. Her face was almost as red as her hair by the time they had finished dancing, though Clary probably didn't know that he had noticed that.

And while Clary looked awkward as they danced and spoke, she also looked… happy. She was actually smiling. Sure, she smiled a lot anyways, but she wasn't really smiling. She was forcing it, was always trying to hide her true feelings. No one could be that happy all the time.

So all things considered, Jace was overjoyed that he was able to make her smile.

"So, are you planning on dancing with anyone else?" Jace asked her with a smirk as a new song with an upbeat tempo and horrible lyrics started playing.

She shook her head, a blush creeping on her face. She was so adorable when she blushed. "I'm not planning on dancing with anyone else…"

Jace raised an eyebrow. "Yes you are." Me, possibly…

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are," He argued. "I can see it in your smile." Her genuine, happy smile. Jace felt his heart melt a little at the sight. It was so rare that she smiled so much at once.

Clary laughed at Jace's antics, and turned away to find her friends. Probably to tell them about their dance.

The realization hit him like a brick to the face.

No, it couldn't be over already. No, no, no, NO!

"Clary, wait,"

She stopped and turned around, looking at him expectantly.

Jace bit his lip, thoughts flying through his head.

Shoot, now what? Say something, anything. Tell her she looks gorgeous, you really really like her, tell her, tell her...

"You should smile more."

He mentally kicked himself. For fucks sake, Jace! 'You should smile more'? Bloody idiot!

She blushed and nodded her head, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Then she walked away from him, turning her head once more to look back at him. She gave him a little wave, then disappeared into the waves of students.

Just as he turned around as well, a group of guys came up to him, the same guys from earlier.

The ones he called his friends. They were all so… fake. He just couldn't put his finger on it. He couldn't even remember half of their names. They were all so similar, if one of them got kidnapped by an ax murderer, no one would notice. They were all sporty white guys with blond, dirty blond, or brown hair. Their eyes didn't have much variety either, each with either brown or blue eyes.

They were laughing at some joke one of them had made about butts.

Jace groaned inwardly. They were the last people he wanted to see right now.

"Congratz man," Sebastian evaporated out of nowhere. He patted Jace's shoulder as he came to stand next to him.

Jace rolled his eyes. "On what?" He asked.

"On dancing with the Fire Ant."

Jace forced himself to smile, as if he was in on a joke.

"So, is she a good dancer?" Sebastian asked him.

Jace shrugged nonchalantly. "I guess." He didn't want to give away any of his feelings for Clary. "Why?"

Sebastian licked his lips. "I'm gonna ask her to dance."

Jace tried not to sound too surprised when he responded. "Why?"

"'Cause a couple of the guys and I made this bet. The first person to break some random girl's heart wins. Bonus points if you break more than one girl's heart." He said, an evil glint in his eyes. Sebastian was very competitive. He would do whatever he could to win this bet.

Jace swallowed nervously. "What's the prize?"

Sebastian smirked. "The satisfaction of knowing that I can do anything I want, and not have to face the consequences. That I can make any girl fall for me with the flick of the wrist, and then drop her like an egg." He plastered an innocent look on his face. "Once I'm done with those girls, they'll be cracked." The innocence in his eyes was gone, replaced with a hunger for pain, rage and heartbreak.

"So why Clary? What'd she do to you?" Jace said, fearing for what was to come.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow, speaking to Jace as if he were a small infant. "Aww, is little Jacey-Wacey jealous?"

Jace forced himself to roll his eyes, to seem like he couldn't care less about Clary. "Of course not. Why would I want that silly little girl when I could have any other girl in the school?" God, I hope Clary never finds out I ever said that about her.

Sebastian nodded his head, satisfied with Jace's answer.

"Well to answer your question, it's because she so obviously has a crush on me. It'll be so easy to break her puny little heart." The evil glint in his eyes was even brighter than it had been before.

Suddenly, the next slow song started. Sebastian licked his lips. "That's my cue. Wish me luck." He gave Jace a wicked smile before he walked away to go find Clary.

The group of Jace's "Friends" walked away as soon as Sebastian left. Jace let out a sigh of relief. But it was short lived, as a group of girls came up to him, each asking him if he wanted to dance with them. Jace put on a fake smile and grabbed a random girl from the group. Kaelie. Great.

Jace winked at her, and pulled her close to him. "Why hello there." He said, his voice husky with fake passion. Kaelie giggled. Jace turned his head slightly so she wouldn't notice him rolling his eyes. Suddenly, an idea popped into Jace's head. If he could get to Clary first, tell her what was really going on… but Clary had been crushing on Sebastian for such a long time. He couldn't let her down like that. He would let her go on one date with him. One date. That was it. After that, he would tell her about Sebastian's true plans and boom! Problem solved.

"...so I told her that... if she wanted you...bite me!... How dare she?!" Kaelie ranted on and on and on while Jace pretended to listen, interjecting gasps and nodding at random points of her speech. It worked wonders.

Jace could see Sebastian and Clary in the corner of his eye. Sebastian was making her blush even more than he had been. He felt a pang of jealousy in his chest. She was smiling. That dirty liar had made her smile. The next thing she knew, she would be on her knees, drowning in her own tears because of that boy. Clary already had enough trouble at home, she didn't need more at school.

Jace didn't know what really happened at her house, but he knew it had to be bad, if she couldn't even talk to anyone about it.

He wished that she would open up to him, just like she would've done so many years ago. But in one day, years worth of love and trust was stripped away, and now Clary mostly kept to herself. If not for her small group of friends, she would've been known as the school loner. Clary used to be talkative, loud, and outgoing. Happy, even.

She was still loud, talkative and outgoing, but happy? No. It was all just a charade. She did her best to act like she wasn't in pain, like she wasn't suffering, but Jace could see right through her big smiles and loud laughs.. He remembered the first time he noticed Clary seemed slightly… off.

They walked into the park, side by side. They took in the beautiful scenery, the lush trees, the blue skies, the dandelions, the green grass. It was almost as green as the eyes of a certain red haired girl.

They found a random spot in the grass and sat down. They talked and talked for what felt like hours, until Jace found himself with his head rested in Clary's lap. She played with his hair as he spoke.

"I can't believe my mom would be so mean! I'm not allowed to play soccer for a week!" Jace complained. He pulled grass out of the dirt as he spoke, venting his frustration. He looked up at Clary when she didn't respond. "Clary? What's wrong?"

She quickly blinked the hot tears away. "It's nothing." She said. She forced a smile. "Continue." She ushered him on, urging him to return to his rant.

Jace looked at her unsurely, sitting up. "Clare, you're crying. Tell me what's wrong."

Clary shook her head forcefully and closed her eyes, as if to recompose herself. "Honestly, Jace, I'm fine." She opened her eyes and grabbed his hand, squeezing it reassuringly. "I just… yawned. That's all." She assured him. Jace unsurely rested his head back in her lap, her words echoing through his head.

I'm fine.

He had been so foolish to assume that she was telling the truth. Of course she wasn't fine. How could she be?

Jace blinked. The song was finally over. He winked at Kaelie again, and walked away from her to find his posse.

Again, they congratulated him, patting his back, same old same old. Sebastian came back from his dance with Clary, a smile on his face.

"So, you've joined the bet as well then?"

Jace shot him a questioning look. "What?"

"You danced with teenage-slut number one. You were flirting and everything."

Jace would hardly call that flirting, but he didn't argue. "Oh, ya, obviously. She was all over me, it'll be hilariously easy to break her heart." He nearly cringed at his words. He sounded so heartless.

"So, how long do you think it'll be before we can break these girl's hearts?" Jace asked him.

Sebastian thought for a second. "I say we have until the end of highschool. We've got to make it look like actually love them, right?"

Jace raised his eyebrows. "You're gonna stay with Clary for five years?"

Sebastian laughed. "Of course not. Maybe just a year. Then I'll move onto the next girl, then the next, and so on."

Jace nodded his head. "Oh ok."

This was gonna be a hell of an experience.

~oOo~

Clary walked through the doors and plopped her backpack on the ground. "Hi mom," She called, signifying she was home.

"Hi Clary."

Clary walked into the kitchen, where her mother was cooking. "Is Jon not home yet?"

Jocelyn shook her head. "Can you go make you and your brother's beds?"

Clary groaned. "Why Jon's bed? He can make his bed himself." She whined.

"Because I asked you to."

Clary huffed and walked up the stairs.

No. I am not making his bed for him. He can do it himself.

Clary knew it was selfish to think like that, but she had been doing favours for her step brother for the whole week. Bringing him snacks while he was studying for exams, and bringing him his clean clothes from the washing machine in the basement, even waiting for him in front of his high school after her school finished and then holding his heavy textbooks for him all the way home.

Just as she got up the stairs, her mother started ranting about something. She did that a lot lately, yelling for absolutely no reason. She walked to her room, closed the door and plopped down on her bed. She stayed there for a few minutes until her mother called up to her.

"Clary, have you finished making the beds yet?"

Clary opened the door and shouted back at her mother. "No."

Suddenly, her mother started yelling again.

Clary groaned. What did I do now?

She walked back down the stairs. "Is something wrong?" She asked politely, standing on the bottom steps.

Her mother was fuming. "Come down here when I'm talking to you! How am I supposed to hear you from all the way up there?" She shouted.

Clary winced. "Sorry." She murmured before walking back up the stairs again.

"Stupid girl! Can't do anything right. I ask her to do this little thing, and what does she do? Nothing. Why can't she be neater, like me? I was never this lazy when I was her age. Son of a…"

Clary slammed her door shut before she could hear anything more. She fell onto the bed, her breathing laboured.

Why does she hate me? What did I do to deserve this?

She got up, blinking away tears that were forming in her eyes and turned on the radio. Maybe some music can cheer me up.

For the first time in forever, only sad songs were playing. The music didn't do any good for her mood, so she turned the radio off again. She sighed and started making her bed.

She heard the front door open, followed by a few pairs of feet walk through the door. She walked out of her room and went down a couple of stairs to try and see who was entering their household.

She saw Luke, Jon and a few of his friends, including Jace, Alec, and Isabelle taking off their shoes.

She sighed in relief. Though Isabelle always came over unannounced, she was always welcome when she did.

It was if Isabelle could sense whenever something was wrong. The only time she came over was when Clary was feeling down on herself. Currently, she was the only one, except for Jon and Luke, who knew about her relationship with her mother.

Clary raced down the stairs to greet her friend. Isabelle smiled brightly as soon as she saw her. "Come on, let's go to my room." Clary said, grabbing Isabelle and practically dragging her up the stairs.

Isabelle laughed giddily as they raced up the stairs. A little too giddily. She was probably just putting up a charade, acting as if nothing was bothering her.

They ran to Clary's room and shut the door behind them. As soon as the door closed, the smile fell off Isabelle's face. "Spit it out."

Clary sighed. "Mom was shouting again." She muttered, sitting down on the floor.

Isabelle scowled and sat next to her. "What'd she say this time?"

She took a hair tie off her wrist and started fiddling with it, wrapping and unwrapping it around her index finger. "She said I'm stupid, I can't do anything right, and she might've called me a bitch." She winced at the last part.

Isabelle's gaze softened. "Oh Clary," She sighed. She wrapped her arms around Clary comforting her.

There was a knock at the door. They broke apart, and Clary got up to go open it. "Yes?" She said to the face. It was Jace.

"Um, your mum wants you guys to come down for dinner." He said awkwardly.

"Okay, thanks. Tell her we'll be down in a moment." She said, closing the door in his face.

~oOo~

Clary, Isabelle, Jon, Jace and Alec finished their dinner in silence. The other boys who had come with them had gone back home a few minutes before dinner had been served.

"Alright guys, I'm going to go upstairs and rest for a bit. Give me a shout if you guys have got any problems." Jocelyn announced and walked up the stairs.

The group only nodded in response, taking their plates to the sink, waiting in a line to clean them. The boys cleaned theirs first, and then raced down to the basement, probably to finish whatever video game they had been playing before dinner had started. Clary watched them as they walked down the stairs. Jace looked up at the last second and gave her a small smile, before disappearing down the stairs.

Suddenly, a thought flew into her head.

What if he heard what we were talking about? No, not 'What if', he definitely heard what we were talking about. But just how much did he hear?

As if she read her mind, Isabelle spoke up. "He probably didn't even hear anything, Clary." Isabelle reassured her.

But they both knew that wasn't true.

Clary sat back down at the table and plopped her head in her hands.

Oh no.

Alright, done! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Again, I'm really sorry about not updating in so long. I'll try my hardest not to let it happen again.

One last thing, I'm planning on introducing a new character next chapter, and maybe delving deeper into the stories on a few others. The first person to guess both correctly gets the first… 400 words of the next chapter. The first to get only one of the two will get the first 300 words of the next chapter.

Love you guys!

~Sammy